The Elementary School Shooting in Oregon

On October 19th, 2025, the Louvre became the backdrop of something straight out of a heist movie. In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day through the eyes of the people who live them. Then, I'll join the International Hunt for the Louvre Jewels. Heist at the Louvre, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favorite podcast app. Or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts to listen ad-free. It's Friday, October 16th. It took three minutes, now three children are dead. We start here. A teenage gunman charges into an elementary school and opens fire. "This is the kind of thing you hear about in other places and pray that it never happens here." It could have somehow been even worse than when Oregon Town reckons with the aftermath. President Trump backs off a plan to live stream an execution. "There was a lot of pushback, particularly in Capitol Hill, between Democrats and Republicans, what made him change his mind. And if they're not attacking Iran, what are they doing there?" "They have targeted tankers as well as other ships in this region." Our team is on board an American aircraft carrier as the Middle East simmers around them. From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milky. [Music] Yesterday morning, authorities in Illinois announced they'd arrested a young man for plotting a mass shooting. The FBI says in 19-year-olds, facing charges for allegedly planning a mass shooting, possibly at a Hindu temple near Chicago. If what they're alleging is true, this very nearly became a catastrophe. They say this 19-year-old had developed into a strident white supremacist and then showed up to a Hindu temple in the town of Aurora, Illinois. This temple is especially well-known by Indian Americans in the area. In fact, Congressman Roger Krishnamurthy was sitting in there with his family as the suspect allegedly made his way into the parking lot. Police say he had with him an AR-style weapon, a ton of ammunition, before then deciding to leave. Investigators describe that as a narrowly-averted crisis. "I think we were very fortunate that something much, much worse did not happen." Analysts say this and other incidents in the past few days have been a symptom of having so many young men in this country that are angry and armed. But by the afternoon, on the other side of the country, there was another terrifying incident involving yet another teenager with a gun. "Please have responded to reports of an active shooter at the Silver Rail Elementary School again in Bend, Oregon." This time, it was at an elementary school in Oregon. And this wasn't averted. Children are dead. A lot developing overnight. Let's go straight to ABC's Trevor Alt, who's based in Los Angeles, Trevor. This happened in the city of Bend, Oregon, right? What happened? Yeah, so this is central Oregon, Brad, at an elementary school. Silver Rail Elementary School, and this happened apparently very quickly, but was also quite deadly in just a horrific story, the details that we're learning. So what we're told from officials is that five people were found dead inside this elementary school. That includes the shooter, but it also includes three children, a five-year-old, an eight-year-old, and an 11-year-old, and a teacher that was killed as well. We are heartbroken. We are horrified. This is the kind of thing you hear about in other places, and pray that it never happens here. And it has happened here. So what we've heard from officials is the first 911 call came in a minute before one o'clock yesterday afternoon, and it came from a person who was sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot of this school. And that person called 911 and said the shooter had a long gun at first fired at them in their vehicle. In the ensuing several minutes, dispatch received dozens of 911 calls, reporting that a shooter had entered the building at Silver Rail Elementary School. Officers responded there within three minutes of that first 911 call, and by then, they say the suspect was already dead, but unfortunately, those other children and the teacher were dead as well. The shooter had forced their way into the school by shooting at locked doors. Now, what we're told from officials is that a bystander who was outside the school saw this shooter with a weapon entering the school. The bystander followed the suspect in and then shot and killed the suspect. Wow. This was only a matter of minutes, maybe three minutes maximum that this entire thing played out. And now we're talking about four dead victims and two other people that were taken to the hospital bread, a seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher, and we're told both of them have critical injuries. Oh my gosh, I think of these children and their families and the fact that somebody just happened to follow in the shooter and stop this from becoming even worse. Do we know anything about the shooter, Trevor? Like, was there like a connection to this school or something? So that's one thing that investigators are not answering at this point. They say that it's too early in the investigation. But what they did say is this is a 16-year-old bend resident who is the suspect in this case. Now, from what we've been told, of course, as you might imagine, when you're talking about multiple dead people, this is going to be a meticulous investigation. We know the FBI has joined them there on the scene. In then, the local police are going to be leading that investigation. But as far as we know right now, there are major questions in terms of motive, in terms of any connection to the school. We don't know any of those answers at this point. Well, the other thing, I mean, there's so many things about this story that are like, why does this keep happening again and again? But one of the things we've talked before is about school security. Well, police sounded like this suspect might have just shocked their way in. So, I mean, if you can shoot your way through a lock, how much can these security measures actually help? If all it takes is three minutes to carry out a massacre like this? Yeah, of course, Brad. And it's one of those things where we don't know exactly what happened in terms of the suspect entering or the kind of weapon or what the security setup was at this individual school. And even in this case, you are talking about, yeah, this could have been way worse. And this is a scenario where you had a good guy with a gun. But we're seeing a few different things here that are also playing out because God knows, Brad, we have talked about you and I specifically. But everyone in America have talked about how many of these school shootings that America has experienced. And one common thread that I'm also seeing at all of these different shootings now is every single police department says, we just went through a drill on how to respond to one of these shootings. The police, the school systems, they are preparing for these awful scenarios and they do continue to happen. Now, big no mistake, there is absolutely zero doubt at this time from what we've been told that that person who followed the shooter and took them down was prepared and is took heroic action and almost certainly saved the lives of a ton of people and likely a number of young children. But the question as to how do we prevent the school shooting from happening to begin with is something that I still think America continues to reckon with and there is no sign of that changing any time soon. All right, I was going to say is what police are describing is accurate. I mean, this sounds like best case scenario in terms of response from police officers. And yet here we are, like you said, for dead victims and others in critical condition. Trevor Al, thank you so much. Thank you, Brad. All right, next up on start here, his defense secretary called to live stream and execution. Now the president is calling him off or back in a bit. This show is sponsored by NetSuite. There's no doubt about it anymore. AI is changing the way businesses get work done. So companies need software that understands that. With AI woven into the tools they already rely on, that's what you get with NetSuite next. NetSuite next is the new generation of the business management suite. 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A group of observers is often on hand to bear witness. But there's no chest thumping. There's no applause. Which is why so many people were shocked, even outraged, when Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth announced that not only had the army scheduled its first execution of a US soldier and have a century, but that it would be live streamed. There's no reason to televised an execution. It's beneath the dignity of the United States. I wonder what the goal is to live stream that. Do we want our kids seeing that? Now, if we're talking about the most serious felonies, the case of Major Nadal Hassan certainly fits the bill. At 1.30 pm, gunfire rings out near the heart of Fort Hood. It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on American soil. In 2009, this Muslim American officer, who served as a psychiatrist to other soldiers, went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas. He killed 13. He injured 32 others. Heggseth says that's why every American should have the opportunity to watch him put to death by firing squad. But yesterday, after a week of controversy, the commander-in-chief President Trump announced a change of plans. The death penalty will proceed. The live stream will not. Let's check in with ABC Steve Bain and who covers the Pentagon, Steve. How did we get here? Well, Pete Heggseth has been signaling for a long time that he wants to move executions forward for the four inmates actually on death row that are army prisoners. He actually went to Fort Campbell and handed out purple hearts to troops who survived a separate shooting rampage in Kuwait. We can go back as far back as 2015 when he worked at Fox. He mentioned the Fort Hood shooting several times. He fast-forward a little bit. He becomes secretary of defense. He makes those signals heard in the army, which started developing plans to execute Hassan and potentially other death-throwed inmates as far back as February. The army secretary approved the execution to happen by firing squad. Then Heggseth took it a step further, announcing it would actually be live stream and a broadcast. Do you want the execution of the Fort Hood shooter to be live streamed? Are you worried that the video would be used as propaganda to radicalize that? From the beginning, Trump never really committed to having the live stream happen. I really don't care how he goes as long as he goes. He's been very vocal about being for the execution of Hassan as with many Republicans, but very hesitant on the part of live streaming it. When Heggseth announced the live stream, I mean, we hear at ABC as the Pentagon, most days after that is this still moving forward. They asserted that the secretary was correct in his announcement and the live stream would happen. The change seemed to happen pretty quickly behind the scenes. Let's get into this because at first President Trump said, "No, this is happening." Then he heard a lot of pushback and he started saying, "Maybe it won't and now he's saying it's definitely not going to happen." Why? What are the issues at play here? No, there was a lot of pushback, particularly in Capitol Hill between Democrats and Republicans, Vice President J.D. This is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people. Now, that said, I mean, look, if it's all through live stream, I'm not going to be watching it. And there were concerns also in Trump's orbit as well. Sources LABC News, the plan to live stream the execution, was secretary Heggseth's idea, and that President Trump initially liked it. But we are told the president was not aware that Hassan is in a wheelchair, paralyzed in the course of his attack. There was concerns with if there's the video gets out of Hassan's execution. You mind you? He's bound to a wheelchair, too. That would be a significant supercharge to anti-American propaganda, particularly amongst radical Muslim groups. And beyond that, just potentially a moral scar on the country, rather than it was appropriate to turn an execution, particularly military one, which historically is a pretty solemn event into spectacle. I didn't want any adolescents or anybody like that to see it, and then it's not like you going to have a tailgate, you're going to celebrate this man putting the death because that's disrespectful to the fallen and to the survivors. And survivors of the shooting that we interviewed all agreed they believe that Hassan should be executed. They do support that, but they did not support the idea of it being live streamed either. We're not about that. So yes, just is going to be served, but not in a form of where it's going to be like a party. And a new ABC News Washington Post Ipsos poll found that eight out of 10 Americans also do not believe the execution should be live streamed. So then what happens now, Steve, because the execution, it's still going to happen, right? The question is just whether it's going to happen sort of in front of cameras and front and like that there's going to be footage for the world to see, right? So what actually has to be ironed out now? Right. So it's unclear if there would be any media there as we've, as we discussed, there's not going to be a live stream, but we don't know if there might be any sort of press conference before or imagery of Hassan being taken into that facility. But yes, he is still set to be executed by firing squad on December 3rd at one o'clock local time at Fort Hood, one o'clock marking around the time his shooting started. The last execution was done in 1961, but it was actually by hanging. The last firing squad execution was in 1945. The Army does have a very old policy dating back to the 50s on how it would do a firing squad. That process has been long seen as outdated. And so right now part of their process to execute him is to figure out the procedures. How many shooters there are? How many paces away from Hassan will they be? What do the execution orders look like? What is the train up for these soldiers who have to do this? This is not a task that has been done in the Army for generations. So these shooters and the people around them have to just create an entire procedure from scratch. Right. And this imagery described of a, I mean, a man in a wheelchair is going to be lined up and shot if all goes according to plan here. That is what led so many critics to say, like this sounds like something that like Iran would do, like a theocracy would do of publicly executing someone either as a warning or as a sort of victory lap, just like a really interesting story about moral outrage and national security and politics and how that can all kind of tie together. Steve Bain and covering the Pentagon. Thanks. Thank you for having me. President Trump has made a lot of promises about the war in Iran. That war is going to end very soon and when it does, your prices are going to come tumbling down. They already are. It's not a good blessing to me might have been this one about a week ago, President Trump posted a message on social media announcing the US will not be striking Iran again before the midterms. But I believe we'll make a deal right after the election because it doesn't make sense for them not to they're waiting to see how I do in the midterm election, which to some was confusing. If you're in a war, why would you tell anyone let alone your enemy that you're done attacking them for now, but this seems to be part of a broader strategy. Trump is waging an unpopular war in which no matter how much you bomb Iran, they still have the ability to make shipping very difficult in the state of hormones. It doesn't want to give up and send troops home, but it also doesn't want to launch a new round of attacks and make this waterway even tougher to diverse. So for the last week, the question has been, if you're not attacking Iran and you're not leaving, what exactly are thousands of our service members doing there? This morning, ABC's Matt Rivers is seen for himself. He is on the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier that we could say is somewhere in the Arabian sea, Matt. I assume you're not allowed to tell us much more than that, right? Yeah, a little bit of the Navy calls the operational security, basically in order to come on board, they made us agree that we would not share the exact location of the ship that were on nor what country we transmitted through and how we ended up on the ship. But regardless of how we got here and exactly where we are, what I can tell you is that we are pretty close to the straight of our moves. And that's not a surprise given what we're seeing going on on this ship. Going back to your initial thought, look, even though the president hasn't really decided how or when he might end this conflict with Iran, the people that we're seeing aboard this ship, the 5,000 members of the military and its staff this ship are keeping quite busy. So what are they doing at the moment? Well, they are flying all the time. And they're doing that for a couple of different reasons. Number one, they're continuing to enforce this blockade on Iranian oil coming out of the straight of our moves. The long term play by the Trump administration is to continue to try to strangle the Iranian economy and the way to do that, they think, is by strangling off their ability to export oil. They have done that pretty successfully so far and the Iranian economy is teetering. There's no question about it. From the flip side, the other thing that all that's 18, that's 30, 5,000 surveillance aircraft or early warning aircraft and helicopters that we've seen parked on that flight deck out here in the Iranian city. The other thing they're doing is escorting the commercial tanker. holding oil that the United States wants to get out of the trade informant. Our job and our mission is simply to provide a credible combat power to ensure that we have freedom of navigation and maritime security in this area and control over the strength. That's correct and that's exactly what we're doing. To make sure that oil prices don't get any worse than they already are and there's a lot of evidence that they have been pretty successful at that. Getting a lot of tankers out, largely using air cover and air protection of the military basically providing protection for those tankers. Now that's not to say that Iran is not continuing to target tankers. In fact, we've seen some of the most vicious tanker targeting by the Iranians in terms of frequency that we've seen in this entire conflict in just the last month alone. But there's no question that these aircraft carriers here, Brad, one of two, I'm on the USS George Washington. They are making a difference and then the last thing I would say is that they're constantly on alert for Iranian strikes. They have targeted tankers as well as other ships in this region. So it is something that we watch, we pay attention. So that is something that is very much on the minds of all the sailors aboard this ship as they keep trying to keep themselves safe and also the other smaller ships that are in this strike group. Is oil getting through the street of Hormuz? Because each Iran and the US seem to constantly say like we control this waterway. What's the, who does? You know, there is oil getting through the straight up Hormuz, Brad. There's no question. We talk to consistently. We talk to maritime security experts, trade experts who say that there is a lot of evidence that tankers are getting through under these escort programs by the US Navy. They're doing these ship, the ship transfers or basically making through the street of Hormuz. They need another ship somewhere on the other side. They offload their oil supply. Then they go back through the Iranians and every incentive to say that they control the street of Hormuz. But I think what you really need to look at is the price of oil, is it great? No, but has it gone to 150, 175, 200 dollars a barrel? No. So that does tell you that at least in part supply is doing something to keep the price relatively stable, even if it's higher than most people would like it to be. But that's why I'm kind of wondering is is even if the Trump administration is saying it's not as hot of a war as it was a month ago. Clearly, these service members are still facing risks out there. I mean, not only are we talking about Iranian drones, but I think Houthi rebels and Yemen seem to be getting more and more powerful yesterday. We heard about missiles hitting the palace at the capital of Yemen. I mean, how likely is it that these sailors and service members do come into sort of a conflict? I mean, it's very likely, I think, and it's really just one call from the president away that can totally change the nature of this conflict. I mean, if the president calls up right now and says, hey, you guys need to start carrying out missions against the Iranian Batouthi rebels in Yemen to help out Saudi Arabia. And they're ongoing conflict. Well, guess what these people are going to do? Their job is to follow the orders of the men and people. I talk to people on here, say they're ready and willing to carry out those orders. If that means striking in Yemen, if they get the call, that they need to start striking Iranian targets again, they will do that. And it's both of those things happen. Then this conflict could ramp up quite quickly. Highly trained, highly capable crew that is flexible to whatever our national leadership tasks us with. You basically have at the same time on this ship a consistent pattern of flight operations when it comes to enforcing that blockade, escorting those commercial tankers, but you are really just a phone call from the White House away from this conflict either in Yemen or in Iran or both, escalating in a major way once again, putting all of these service members who are out here at risk. I will say, I've talked to a lot of people out here and they are ready and willing to carry out the president's orders because that is their job, they say. No matter who the commander in chief is, they get to call, they do the job. All right, and I can tell by the way that you're very much on an aircraft carrier with this sort of phone signal, but what's the very buzzing in the background? It's because we're right underneath the flight deck. So there are literally aircraft taking off and touching down quite loudly just feet above our head. I was a job. Yeah, I was about to say, like, and this is why we're doing it on the phone instead of our usual, like, have you send a big right file with with the sound on it, but Matt Rivers somewhere in the Arabian Sea right now. Thank you so much. Thank you, Brad. Okay, one more quick break. When we come back, the caption always told us these weren't actors. Perhaps we should wish they had been. One last thing is next. I was an Avenger, but I'm not a hero anymore. The vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy. That family wasn't real. You sure about that? I had a father called vision. Oh, is this possible? Don't miss the two episode premiere of Marvel Television's Vision Quest. Nothing bonds a family together quite like mortal jeopardy. Now streaming, only on Disney Plus. What has fallen in my lap is huge. FX is the lowdown. I'm just kind of blowing things up. You're not Jason Bawke. Ethan Hawke and Tommy Lee Jones. The conspiracy theorist. Eyes again. The critically acclaimed series returns. Which way? Be normal now and again. Where is your punk rock spirit? FX is the lowdown. Now streaming. On Hulu. And one last thing. I'm part of a generation that grew up watching court cases play out on TV. And I'm not just talking about the OJ trial. I'm talking about this. In 1981, the people's court premiered. This was reality television before reality shows as we know them. Real people involved in real legal disputes who would agree to drop litigation proceedings and opt for kind of binding arbitration. Faster justice, fewer legal fees. There's only one catch. You're on TV for the world to see. That's not a threat. Okay. That's an effort to collect money. That is not it. No, it's not. There were a million spin-offs of this, including divorce court, hot bench, and of course, judge Judy. If you're old enough to make a baby, you're old enough to be able to support a baby. And you don't wait until you get a court order to do that. It's been hugely successful as a format. The OJ, the people's court, ran in various forms over four decades. But this week, something happened that even long-time fans might not have expected. This is the plaintiff, Dale Smith. He says the defendant is ex-Fiancé. Through the engagement ring, he gave her up about any of the hotel room during a big fight they had. This is an episode from 2011, in which a couple from Florida disputed whether Michelle Parker should reimburse Dale Smith $5,000 that he spent on a ring that she flung during an argument. In the end, Judge Marilyn Millian, a retired Florida circuit court judge, ruled that the pair should split the cost of the ring. But just hours after this episode aired, Michelle Parker went missing. "Smith would last known person to see or hear from Michelle on November 17, 2011." She'd apparently dropped the kids off at Smith's house and then was never heard from again. This week, 15 years later, Smith was officially charged with her murder. "We owed to Michelle and her family to make sure justice is served in this case." Police said they had investigated this 15 years ago, including the fact that Michelle's car and phone were found in a nearby lake. But they didn't have a body and didn't feel confident bringing a charge. Now they say technological advancements, along with new evidence brought to light just this year, changed everything. "We're able to better interpret that evidence today than what we were able to do back in 2011." But the challenge remains, it's tough to secure a murder conviction without a dead body. You need overwhelming circumstantial and forensic evidence that the victim died in the first place. Meanwhile, some observers are going back and watching this TV episode wondering if any of this could have been predicted. For all the humor and real-life drama of a throne engagement ring, as Michelle told her side of the story, she alleged what sounded less like an entertaining fight, and more like the result of a physical confrontation with two children hanging in the balance. "I felt somebody grabbed me and yanked me around. As he grabbed and turned around, he was holding on to me, screaming at me." Smith denied wrongdoing at the time, he has pleaded not guilty here, but it is a reminder that the characters and reality shows aren't characters at all. Their stories go on long after we've stopped watching. And we will have a lot more from the scene in Bend, Oregon all day on ABC News Live, so keep it right there. Start here is produced by Jen Newman, Anthony Ali, Aaron Ferrer, Emily Schutz, and Vika Aronson. Ariel Chester is our social media producer, Josh Kohannis Director of Podcasts Programming. I'm our managing editor. Thanks to John Newman, Tara Gimmel, Aimen McNiff, and Katie Dendos. Special thanks this week to Mike DeBuskey, Jim Sholes, Josh Margolan, and our intern Indra de la Psychrome. I'm Brad milking. See you next week. The Hulu original series, Phoney, is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. My name is Sonny Cook, ever since the accident. My mom looks different. You think your mom has been swapped out with a different woman? I know something, okay? Something's wrong. I don't know what's going on with you, but I know that I'm your mother. If that's not your mom, are you using shoes? I don't know, but I need to find her. Watch the Hulu original series, Phoney, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus, for bundle subscribers, terms applied. From the producers of the Traders comes the All New Hulu original series The Mob. Welcome to Italy! Hosted by Parker Posey, 12 celebrities will compete in the ultimate game of power. You'll be doing jobs. Let's go! The dawn decides who gets paid and who gets taken out. You do what you gotta do. Let the games begin. The All New original series The Mob premieres October 26th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.